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Sunday’s are interesting days. Sometimes they are filled with relaxation and football. Some of us worship in our respective ways. Others spend the day with family around a table eating. Still others need the time to mow the lawn and do all the things they didn’t get to during the week.

I started thinking about what I do on Sundays. Sometimes I end up doing basically what I don’t want to be doing. So what are five things I think most dad’s ideal Sunday would be:

Watching football, baseball or golf.

Eating.

Not doing yard work.

Sleeping past 7 am.

Checking the football schedule for next Sunday.

The items above make a great plan. Below are the five things that will actually happen today:

In my last post, Life In the Inflatable Family pool, my wife and I learned life is different now that we are older. After Little A didn’t want anything to do with the pool, it was time to deflate and pack away for this year.

It is with sadness I report in the end, the pool ended up in the garbage.

Inflatable pools are filled with air, not water. What do I mean? As we went to lift the pool to drain the water, we found it harder to move than expected. Somehow, water filled the two bottom inflatable rings. This was only learned after much aggravation, ( and a frustrated daddy Kung-Fu kick to an inflatable ring). Oh, and mommy seeing the water.

If you’ve tried to move the Blob before, you understand our difficulty.

The End

Ultimately, I had to slice the two rings open to expel the water. I was disappointed at the thought of cutting the pool. I’m not sure what it symbolized to me subconsciously. Maybe a failing in my parenting abilities? I digress.

Little A of course, wasn’t phased by the situation. In fact, I think he’s secretly pleased. Mommy was more frustrated at my Bruce Lee impersonation. I’m just glad I can re-grow the grass that started to burn underneath the pool.

In the end, life moves on. So the lesson we learned while sitting in the pool holds true. Enjoy the little moments and be weary of inflatable pools.

I hope you enjoyed this post. As always comments are welcome and encouraged!

Like this:

Parents will tell you, there are things you need to do to get through some days with the little ones. Nutrition is also important regardless of one’s station in life. Various beverages can provide nutritional value. Combining these two needs results in more daddy’s needs for daily survival.

Alcoholic beverages (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I compiled a list of my top five beverages every dad should have on his menu:

The coffee and water are self-explanatory. Green tea not only tastes good, but is rich with anti-oxidants. From what I read, those are good things. As a man who was 103 told me, the red wine is good for your ticker. Who am I to argue.

A note about the beer: you don’t need to consume daily. This is more a delicacy than necessity best consumed after the little ones go to bed. Also, if you are having a glass of wine, skip the beer.

Like this:

I’ve found there are moments when parents question their decision to have kids. Mostly in the wee hours of the morning, the two-hour drive to the in-laws, or the wonder world of Walmart. I suspect these moments are fleeting. Fortunately for the kids, mommy and daddy love them and wouldn’t trade them for the world.

It was in one of these moments, when my beautiful wife looked at me with the all too familiar look of exasperation, and I blurted out, “maybe for my next birthday, I’ll get that procedure to prevent having more.”

I, of course, was completely joking.

With a straight face, and even more serious tone, she responded, “my birthday is sooner.”

I’m going to speak to the husbands and fathers out there: this was a moment of realization about my marriage and life that I honestly didn’t know how to take. Therefore my response was to laugh and change the subject. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Needless to say, since that day we’ve both come to our senses. I will never mention the subject again. I think my wife is somewhat concerned as to what my reaction will be if she mentions it again. So, she’ll just make the appointment for me.

As for Little A, he laughed, shook his head no, and then gave flight to the baby monitor.

I’m a baseball fan and a Yankee fan at that. However, I’m truly exhausted by the saga that is Alex Rodriguez. I need not go into more details or rant about my personal thoughts on the subject. Instead, I thought about how this relates to fatherhood and parenting in general.

The answer is rather simple, the entire situation is a great way to explain some important life lessons. So here is a list of the top ten things a parent can teach their kids using Alex Rodriguez:

No matter how far you can hit a fastball, bad behavior will always catch-up to you.

Anyone tells you to stick a needle in any part of you, and their name is not followed by M.D., seriously question what you’re about to do.

Sports are just entertainment. There are significantly more important things in life.

Get over yourself. Each of us has the potential to do great things, but that doesn’t make us better or more important than everyone else.

Don’t lie. Once you lie, you can never stop. See item #1 above.

Be grateful to those who employ you. For their generosity provides for your life.

If you truly don’t like who or what employs you, leave.

The world isn’t always nice, get used to it.

Some days you will wish you could go back to kindergarten, that’s a normal feeling.

Little A is truly developing a personality. His various grunts and noises are rather amusing. Baby talk doesn’t work on the guy anymore, which is good, but his responses are what makes us laugh. It’s time to work on the language skills.

According to my wife, he’s turning into a man because he doesn’t respond clearly. Usually we’ll get a grunt and a twist of the head. For example, I asked him where his ball was, and he looked at me, then motioned his head towards the ball while giving a “uh” sound.

I refuse to debate with my wife if this is typical male behavior, as I know that is an argument I won’t win. But, I will say, this dad is proud of his little man. Shh…don’t tell the wife.

Of course, I will continue to make sure he uses his words and proper associations. Not to mention using “uh” as a response won’t get him very far in life. For the time being, I’m going to enjoy his one-grunt responses and associated gestures. Once he actually starts talking, it’s all down hill from there.